News about Jayme

June 2015

Jayme has accepted the position of Director of the School of Stage and Screen at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. He will be facilitating the continued growth of the already revered Film, Theatre, Musical Theatre, and Dance programs at WCU.

March 2015

NYC's New Light Theatre Project will be producing the world-premiere of Jayme's play IN THE SOUNDLESS AWE, co-written with Andy Pederson. The equity show will be produced at Access Theatre in Manhattan and will open March 19th, 2015. Go check it out! SYNOPSIS: July 30, 1945. The U.S.S. Indianapolis is hit by two Japanese torpedoes, killing three-hundred sailors in the initial blast and leaving nine-hundred men to drift helplessly in the Pacific Ocean. The survivors are discovered almost five days later. When rescue ships and planes finally arrive, they witness hundreds of large shadows lurking around small groups of broken men drifting aimlessly in the current. Only three-hundred and twenty-one sailors are pulled from the blood-filled water. Twenty-two years later, Charles Butler McVay III, the wrongly court-martialed and disgraced Captain of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger after decades of accusations, guilt, and ceaseless nightmares. He is perpetually haunted by specters below, human and otherwise, who beckon him to join them. In the Soundless Awe is a highly-theatrical, emotionally-wrought, and horrific imagining of the final nightmare of Captain McVay, the man at the helm of the worst Naval disaster in United States history.

September 2014

Jayme's newest play, RED ROCK, will receive an equity staged reading at Chicago Dramatists on Saturday, September 20 at 2:00 PM. The reading will be directed by Associate Artistic Director Rachel Edwards-Harvith and will feature the likes of Jason Narvy (of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fame) and Colin Wasmund.

Jayme received a travel grant to spend time in Ireland researching the lives and works of W.B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde for his upcoming comedy "YEATS GONNE WILDE", co-written with Andy Pederson. The play was commissioned by Concordia University, Chicago and will be produced in the 2014-2015 season.

Jayme and his lovely wife Julie welcomed their son, Levi Scott McGhan, in to the world on February 25th. They are in love.

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June 2013

"Autonomy" was invited to be a part of Stage Left Theatre's 10th Annual LeapFest. The play will be workshopped, rehearsed, and presented in a staged reading on Friday, June 14th, Thursday, June 20th, and Sunday, June 30th at the DCA Storefront Theatre in Downtown Chicago (the loop). The production will be directed by Stage Left Artistic Director, Vance Smith. For more information visit www.stagelefttheatre.com

Jayme's short play "Fry Side" was produced by New Light Theatre Project in NYC.

May 2013

"Autonomy" was chosen for a public reading at Wordsmyth Theatre in Houston on May 13, 2013.

March 2013

"The Fisherman" was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award. Six Finalists will be announced in March and the winners will be presented at the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.

January 2013

Concordia University, Chicago's production of "In the Soundless Awe" was invited to be performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 3 Festival in January and was nominated for the David Mark Cohen Award.

"In the Soundless Awe", a play Jayme co-wrote with playwright Andy Pederson, will receive it's premiere at Concordia University, Chicago. "In the Soundless Awe" is a highly-theatrical take on the final nightmare of Charles Butler McVay III, Captain of the infamous USS Indianapolis, before he kills himself on November 6, 1968. Jayme will also direct.

March 2012

Jayme's newest play, "Autonomy" will receive a staged reading at Chicago Dramatists on March 17th, 2012 at 2:00 PM. The reading will be directed by Vance Smith, Artistic Director of Stage Left Theatre.

February 2012

Dates announced for Stage Left's production of "The Fisherman" at Theatre Wit in Chicago! Previews begin on February 18th. The show opens on Saturday, February 25th. "The Fisherman" runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. The shows's director, Drew Martin, who has been with Stage Left since its inception 30 years ago says that it's "the most politically and socially timely play that Stage Left has ever done." Go see what he's talking about.

"The Fisherman" has been selected to be a a part of The Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha in early June.

March 2011

Jayme will be Technical Directing Stage Left Theatre's production of "An Enemy of the People" by Arthur Miller, adapted from Henrik Ibsen. The show opens in March at the Theatre Wit building in Chicago.

February 2011

Concordia University, Chicago will produce Hellfire as part of their 2010-2011 season. This marks the first time Concordia will premiere a new full-length play.

October 2010

Mother Bear has been optioned by Decapolis Films as a feature length to be shot in the fall of 2011.

Mother Bear received a workshop production in Stage Left Theatre's LeapFest 2010. The play's three week run in Chicago was warmly received. Vance Smith, Artistic Director of Stage Left, directed the show.

February 2010

Mother Bear was performed in NC at Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre's 2010 ScriptFest.

January 2010

The Sweet Stuff was published in Taboo Theatre: Sex and Violence on Stage by John Wayne Shafer. University Reader Publishing

October 2009

Mother Bear will receive a reading at National Pastime Theatre in Chicago IL.

June 2009

Mother Bear was performed at Hot City Theatre in St. Louis MO as part of the GreenHouse Festival of New Plays.

Jayme's biography

Jayme McGhan is a playwright, theatre artist, and educator from Minneapolis, now living in Chicago.

After graduating with a bachelors in Theatre from Southwest (Minnesota) State University, Jayme attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he received an MFA in Playwriting. After UNLV, Jayme moved back to Minnesota where he taught theatre for three years at Ridgewater College. While in Minnesota, he also served as the Regional Representative of The Dramatists Guild to the Twin Cities and surrounding area. Jayme was blessed to marry his wife Julie in June of 2009. Soon after they moved to Chicago where Jayme now teaches as an Associate Professor of Theatre at Concordia University, Chicago and works as a freelance theatre artist. Jayme is also a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, an Artistic Associate at Stage Left Theatre, and a Board Member at Theatre Y.

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Jayme's plays have now been produced and developed across the country at such theatres as Irish Repertory Theatre, Washington Shakespeare Company, The Kennedy Center, Chicago Dramatists, Stage Left Theatre, Mortar Theatre, Hot City Theatre, Wordsmyth Theatre, New Light Theatre Project, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Cockroach Theatre, Yellow Tree Theatre, Chased By an Elephant, Southern Appalachian Rep, and many more. Four of those plays (The Fisherman, The Sweet Stuff, The Methuselah Tree, and Rhythm of Blood) are published. He is a nominee for the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg National New Play Award. His plays, whether they be dramas, comedies, or thrillers, often examine themes of social justice,the nature of loyalty, and the spiritual union between the corporeal and the Holy/Divine.

When not working in the theatre, Jayme is an avid backpacker, runner, snowboarder, skateboarder, music lover, beer connoisseur, reader, poker player, amateur theologian, and die-hard Minnesota Twins fan. He is also very active in his church family and thanks God every day to be doing what he loves.